Sunday, June 12, 2011

What Is the Timeframe for Removing Negative Credit Information?

You usually have nearly a decade to remove negative information from your credit report. In some cases you can wipe negative data from a record in a matter of hours. Removing negative data usually requires proving an error on the credit bureau's part or waiting until it stops reporting it. If you find a legitimate error, you should dispute it immediately.

Credit Report Disputes

    The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives the national credit bureaus 30 days to investigate a consumer dispute and either uphold the negative item or remove it immediately. Some cases can take longer than 30 days when the situations warrant extra time, such as an extremely complex case that requires verifying lots of information. In highly unusual dispute cases, it takes years to resolve a case.

How Long Do You Have to Initiate a Dispute?

    So long as a piece of information remains on your report, the consumer can dispute its accuracy, according to the Federal Trade Commission. There is no need to dispute an item once the federal reporting limit expires. Most negative items fall off a report in seven years, while bankruptcy remains for up to 10 years and tax liens can stay indefinitely.

Considerations

    Even when the consumer comes out of a dispute victorious, the negative item can remain for several more months. The credit bureaus have billions of pieces of data across millions of files, so it can take an extra month or two to update a report to reflect the removal of an item. However, the bureaus must send the consumer a copy of the updated report.

Tip

    The fastest way to remove a negative item is through a rapid rescoring company. This type of service can remove a negative item within hours because rescore services have a close connection to the credit bureaus. Only lenders, such as banks, may use a rapid rescoring service, and the rescore service only agrees to remove items if the creditor concurs that the negative data in question is false. Thus you must complete an investigation before using a rapid rescore company.

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